Dave Bautista Wants To Be In James Gunn’s ‘Suicide Squad’ Movie

He is Dave Bautista, and he plays Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy and The Avengers for Marvel — at least for now. None of the Guardians cast wanted writer/director James Gunn fired after old, offensive tweets written by Gunn years earlier reemerged online. But Bautista was the most vocal of the bunch in defending Gunn, and in insisting he would rather not be involved with a company that would bow to an online troll mob and fire a guy for tasteless jokes. And now that Gunn appears to be headed to the Distinguished Competition to helm Warner Bros.’ Suicide Squadfranchise (either making a sequel or a separate, new take on the material), Bautista wants to follow him.

After the news of Gunn’s defection broke, Bautista took to Twitter to declare his desire to join him:

Bautista is extremely loyal to Gunn, in part because the first Guardians was Bautista’s big break in Hollywood after a long career as a WWE wrestler. Without Gunn and Guardians, Bautista might already be back at WWE. (Technically, Bautista will be on WWE television later this month for a special appearance, but you get my drift.) And hey, you have to respect a guy who believes in his friends and his principles more than the gigantic paychecks he could keep cashing from Marvel and Disney appearing in at Avengers and Guardians movies for years to come.

Bautista’s contract situation with Marvel could prevent him from appearing in any DC movies that Gunn makes for a while. He’ll next appear in Avengers 4 next summer. After that, though ... who knows?